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Friday, 20 November 2015

20/11/15

Since I had some free periods today I done the standard practise of getting the bus down to the Docks. Instead of heading to Egreton I went off to the end of Pacific Road to do some "sea watching" on the Mersey to see what the winds were blowing into the Mersey.

Kittiwakes (EM)

It wasn't long until I had 7 KITTIWAKE (1st) fly past on the Liverpool side of the Mersey side heading east up the river, some poor record shots were managed as you can see. After a period of about half an hour watching the Mersey and the only highlights being the Kittiwakes and I dead Auk (Unknown), I decided to move on round to the Morpeth and Egerton Dock, but on route I checked on the small inlet were the Mallards were still present and had increased from 9 up to 11 birds; 4 females and 7 drakes, along with 1 Redshank flying over NE.

Mallards (EM)

As per normal the Morpeth was barren but 2 Mistle Thrush's were in the nearby bushes feeding on the berries, while on the Egerton Dock the 1st winter Moorhen and Redshank were still present feeding along the south bank were the Moorhen has been observed spending a fair amount of time in the gutter. Shelter perhaps?

Mistle Thrush (EM)

After this I headed over to the East Float were just as I arrived it wasn't just the wind I had to contend with, but also the hail! It was just a matter of time till my hands were freezing cold and my hands had turned into claws, when this occurred I called up mum to see if she could pick me up, thankfully she did and before we headed home we stopped off at the gull roost on the West Float to check on the Lapwings.

Thankfully the Lapwings were still present but numbers were reduced to just 8 birds, while other birds at the site were 1 Redshank, 2 Pied Wagtail and a another huge roost of 1000+ Gulls! This is a very promising site for both Iceland and Glacous Gulls to be seen over the winter period along with that its were half of records of Med Gulls for the Docks have occurred.